If you thought the third-ranked Lincoln boys were going to ease their way into the postseason, guess again.

In every facet — especially inside scoring — the Abes thoroughly dominated Evergreen of Vancouver, sending the Plainsmen to a 101-65 loss Wednesday night in the opening round of the Class 3A West Central/Southwest bi-district tournament in Tacoma.

“They came out in a triangle-and-two (defense), which we hoped they would,” Lincoln coach Aubrey Shelton said. “We’ve got five guys who can all score, so if you want to take away two of them, we have others.”

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Specifically, Evergreen (5-12), the fourth-place team from the 3A GSHL, came in trying to take away the Abes’ top two guards, Anderson and Emmett Linton.

Honestly, it did not matter what the Plainsmen tried to do — the Abes did what they wanted on the inside, getting many easy buckets in the paint, led by Thomas, who had eight points in the first quarter.

“We play really well together,” Anderson said. “We moved the ball around … and got teammates going early. After that, other things opened up.”

Lincoln made 13 of 19 field-goal attempts in the first quarter to grab a 30-11 lead.

And the Abes kept going, hitting their first four shots to start the second quarter — capped by Linton’s 3-pointer from the left center arc. Lincoln was in control, up 39-11 with 6:13 remaining in the first half.

The Abes will play Central Kitsap in the district quarterfinals at 6 p.m. Friday at Timberline High School.

Finality came in the form of seven made free throws in the final minute.

Central Kitsap coach Scott McMinds said he welcomed a chance to face the undefeated Abes.

“Hey, if we are going to compete and see where we are, we’ve got to play the best teams,” McMinds said. “It’s a great opportunity for the kids and the program.”

Winning Wednesday’s game — played at North Thurston High School — gave the Cougars a boost of confidence considering the team was making its first playoff appearance since the 2011-12 season.

Facing a Bonney Lake team that hadn’t practiced since last week because of snow cancellations, Central Kitsap pushed the tempo early, grabbing a 12-7 lead after the first quarter and a 30-19 advantage at halftime.

“Offensively, whatever we ran, we had good looks, good value possessions,” McMinds said.

The Cougars found success slashing to the basket against a taller Bonney Lake team that features 6-foot-10 center Zane Foster. Central Kitsap’s Elijah McGee scored all 11 of his points in the first two quarters, using his quickness to get to the rim.

“I just feels good when we are playing hard together,” said Central Kitsap senior RJ Secrest, who scored a game-high 20 points.

Bonney Lake coach Sam Oliver said his team fought hard enough to win, but put itself in a precarious position early.

“It’s hard to dig yourself out of a hole like that,” Oliver said. “It takes a lot of energy to do that.”

Tyson Lawes led Bonney Lake with 14 points.

With one playoff win under their belt, the Cougars need at least one more to advance to regionals. Their first chance is Friday against Lincoln.

“I think it’ll be exciting,” Secrest said.

Capital 74, Lakes 45: How will the Cougars perform in the playoffs without the Class 3A South Sound Conference’s most valuable player?

TJ Mickelson, the Cougars’ standout point guard who broke his collarbone going up for a rebound against North Thurston last week, is happy with the result.

Sitting on Capital’s bench, he watched as his brother, Matt, scored 14 points and Chris Penner scored a season-high 28 points as the Cougars walloped Lakes to advance to a winner-to-state game.

“We’re a team,” Matt Mickelson said. “We knew we had to step up and we did. … We just came ready to play, like always.”

“We got a chance to watch Capital,” Batten said. “We know they are gonna be a very well disciplined team.”

Timberline 86, Stadium 64: The Blazers were on fire in their taming of the Tigers that saw the Timberline team in top form.

“In the second half, I thought that the combination of Erik Stevenson, Tariq Romain and Eli Morton proved to be just a little bit too much tonight,” Timberline coach Allen Thomas said. “That was the highest point production that we had all season from those three guards at one time.”

Stevenson scored 28 points, Romain had 20 points, and Morton had 19.

Those three scored 67 of their team's 86 points.

“We actually did very well on the offensive boards and that ended up being the difference,” Thomas said.

Still, Thomas is looking for improvement.

“We gotta get better executing, running our plays, and starting out the game in the defensive mindset,” Thomas said. “We didn’t have all five guys working together so when you play that way you can’t get a good comfortable lead to put yourself in the position to excel as a team.

Peninsula faces Stadium in a loser-out game at 7:45 p.m. Friday at North Thurston.

Elijah McLaughlin led the Seahawks with 15 points.

Kelso 62, Gig Harbor 52: Riley Noah scored a game high 20 points and was followed closely by fellow sophomore Shaw Anderson who scored 17 points in the Hilanders’ win.

Kelso advances to face Wilson at 6 p.m. Friday at Olympia in a winner-to-state game.

RJ Green scored 12 points for Gig Harbor, which heads to a loser-out game against North Thurston at 6 p.m. Friday at Capital.

4A WEST CENTRAL/SOUTHWEST

Puyallup 58, Tahoma 47: The Vikings jumped out to a 20-point lead by halftime thanks to Brennan Winter’s team-high 25 points in a district play-in game at Graham-Kapowsin.

Tahoma was eliminated with the loss.

Minutes into the game, Puyallup’s (13-8) top perimeter defender Jacob Holcomb went down with an right ankle injury taking him out of the rest game. In stepped Winter, Landon Neff (12 points) and Ethan Steward (10) to carry the Vikings to victory.

“Jacob is a very big part of our team, and we were fortunate to have other guys step up tonight,” Puyallup coach Scott Campbell said. “Brennan is a senior, and this could have been his last game. He really stepped up and played his heart out tonight.”

Puyallup will play at Federal Way (20-1) at 7 p.m. Thursday in the first round.

2B SOUTHWEST

Life Christian 80, Rainier 40: In their 35th home win in a row, the Eagles secured a decisive win over the Mountaineers.

Luke Lovelady scored a game-high 18 points and got his 1,000th career rebound.

“We came out with a great first quarter,” said Life Christian coach Mark Lovelady of the Eagles’ 23-7 first-quarter lead.

However, after that strong first quarter for the Eagles they let the Mountaineers climb their way back into the game.

“The 2nd quarter was a little flat,” Mark Lovelady said. “We just can’t take any lapses when we build a lead.”

The team rallied back, scoring 27 points in the third quarter to put them squarely back in the driver’s seat.

Eric Overgaard went on to score 17 points to close out the game for the Eagles.

GIRLS BASKETBALL

Top performer: Sharon Ajayi, Kentwood

Scored 24 points in Kentwood’s overtime win over Emerald Ridge

4A WEST CENTRAL/SOUTHWEST

Rogers 63, Auburn Mountainview 29: The Rams were able to cruise to victory over the Lions behind Jessi Westering’s 12 points.

Helping out her teammate was Raigan Barrett, scoring 11 points to extend their lead as Rogers advances to a winner-to-state game against Camas, which beat Olympia, at 6 p.m. Friday at Stadium.

The Lions were led by Taylor Flores’ 14 points. They face Olympia in a loser-out game at 6 p.m. Friday at Rogers.

Kentwood 53, Emerald Ridge 50 (OT): A fifth period was needed to decide the game between the Conquerors and Jaguars as missed shots at the end of regulation led to overtime in the district play-in game.

Sharon Ajayi’s 24 points led all scores in the game for Kentwood. The Jaguars’ Sammantha McGinty led her team with 14 points.

Kentwood advances to face Auburn Riverside in the first round of the district tournament at 7 p.m. Thursday at Auburn Riverside.

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